New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-08-16
BRITISH AMERICA.
THE ravanIAN PACIFIC ROUTE.


uer of 1856 by a syndicate of Austraasian, indian
.,aF,ci,h uewsuapers to describe the couutry
reversed by the new Canadau Pacific Railway
aud undcr this charge he made the long journey by
,o,l from Vancouver 30 Halifax being as he says,
not only the first through passenger. ont posi-
lively the first person to 90 over the line OF ran
etween the Pacific and the Atlantic IN journal
istie sensep We do not know what L. Is TO 90 over
a line IN Il Journalistic seuso ; but wat Mr. Cum
berland accomplished is easily told. He travelled
day and night over the road stopping only at
Winnipeg. When be reached familiar grouhd lie
seems to have stopped oftener Thus While ne hfs
been able TO describe from personal observation INC
Pacific terminus OF the road ut Vancouver "ihhi-
peg aud ils peighborhood. aud the cities OF oV.a-
va Montreal Quebec and Halifax. his kno"le"eo
of the Northwest ra region opened by the raii'oau
is confined TO what he could observe iron 'ne 0"i
windows or learn from fellow-tfaveileFs anu o'hoi
persoas with whom no talked on the way. lhis IS
not satisfactory equipment. ana when ~
il adGei that Air. Cumberands Information
on historical political and general sub
iccts is loose and that he has no literary gift,
our readers will be justified in concluding that
he has made a poor book In point OF fact,
however he has succeeded. by main force as IL
were In putting together fairly readable ana
not useless volume one of a class OF books ex-
tensvely manufactured in England. which crcn-
late W allie their su occt fresh and are quickly
forgotten.
The island of Vancouver ne declares to he verita-
bic Garden of Eden and its climate the most delight
full IN the world. Bnt his experience OF the climate
seems 10 have been confined 10 few days in July,
du1ng which he made pleasant excursions along
the shores: and the Garden of Eden, he confesses'
has very little arabic land. whe much of its forest
land would not pay for the clearing The town OF
Vancouver is not on the island. but at the m0uth
of a fue inlet on the maitland. Mr.. Cumberland
arrived there six weeks after it had been totally
destroyed By fire and the work OF rebuilding
WIS then going with great energy among tue
smoking ruIns The terminus OF the railway Is 10
lie removed TO this town from the present station at
Port Moody. an Insignificant place connected by
steamboat route of ninety miles with the real point
of arrival and departure which is Victoria, on Van
CONVEX Island the capital of the province and the
foreign shipping port. Mr. Cumberland writes at
some length of the climate and resources OF British
Columbia, but lie does not cite his authorlueS'
and his own opportunities for investigation were'
as we have seen, extremely meagre. HIS eStimate
OF the province is favorable, but he does not be-
Ieve that it can be adapted to farming on the large
scale which is now found most profitable 1t Is
true that the climate is admirable and that the
coil s often very good but the good spots DO not lie
close together it being only here and there thatyou
The country seems destined therefore to be divided
in small holdings and occupied by settlers of mod
ateambiton. UT traveller not agreeably I'M
pressed by the aspect of the prairie country of the
proyinces of Alberta and Assiniboia and he quotes
with sarcastic ncredulitv some scientific testimony
20 the value of the unprOmiSine looking soil! 10
Is perfectly correct" he remarks, that, as COM
pared with the United States, Canada has re ally
bad lands to speak Of but that she has good
deal of indifferent land no one can
deny; and Canadas best friends must admit that
great portion Of such land lies in the Northwest
Territories We who remember how much of the
most fertile laud in our Western States was once
hidden under a crust of apparent sterilty. know
how TO take at their value these agricultural OBJ
servatons from railroad tram M. Cumberlands
denuncia,ions of this prairie country compare
queerlv with map at the end Of the book III which
the same region is markell :" Soil good, all fit for
settlement From which we may fairly conclude
that he had no hand in making the map, but con-
veyed 1t from some source not revealed.
The descriptions of mountain scenery VIC may
pass over sIace they are hardly graphic enough to
repay quotation. With aid from some very bad
process pictures the author conveys some idea OF
the grandeur and variety of the views and the
pIcturesqueness of the engineering works which
interest the traveller over the western
portion of the line; but whether in these respects
the Canadian Pacific is more attractive than other
routes does not appear from his account stay OF
a few days at Winnipeg seems to have been indus
triousy turned to account. and Mir. Cumberland
picked up much interesting information about the
operations, past and present, Of the Hudson's Bay
Company. Among the curious things which he OBJ
served here experiment In raising tame buff
falocs the herd then numbering SO. To avoid de-
terioration through in.breedng the owner had tried
crossing the buffalo with the domestic COW. The
result was highly satisfactory, the quickly
revertng to the type of the sire and all trace of the
COW being lost in the third generation After eav-
ing Winnipeg Mr.. Cumberland enters a region
which has been amply described, and we can well
afford to let him finish his journey alone. There is
really no good reason why his chapters the
Canadian cities should have been written, unless
to round out the tour prescribed by the syndicate
of newspapers
He has something to say of the Canadian Pacific
as a rival TO American routes which may be worth
our attention. BY the line of Liverpool, Quebec
Vancouver Yokohama, he calculates that the ship
per saves between England and japan 469 miles OF
Atlantic navigation, 21S miles of rail and 23S
miles of Pacific navigation over the line by New
York Omaha and San Francisco. The difference is so
small that the rivalry. If there should be any would
be practically reduced to competition in the run
ming of trains Here Mr.. Cumberland thinks that
the Canadian Pacific would have an ad van tage in
the baroness of the country through which 1T pass
es There are hardly any important towns on the
route. stopping places are far apart, and 1t would
consequently be easy TO maintain uniform high
speed This argument shows an odd conception of
the problems of railroad management. Mr.. Cum
berand forgets that high speed cannot be
maintained where it will not pay, and he
forgets also that the time between New-York and
San Francisco. we'll as between San Francisco
and Japan. can be considerably shortened whenever
business call for the change The fact that
Quebec is frozen up for nearly half tho year Is a
commercial difficulty only partly avoided by the
accessibility of Portland aud Halifax; and there
is no immediate prospect of rea zlng the scheme of